India is all set to announce the official rollout of 5G services in India and it seems like a date has been set for the official announcement. While telecom operators are already testing their 5G capabilities, reports suggest we are about a year away from the official announcement of the 5G rollout.
According to a report by The Hindu Business Line, India will officially announce commercial 5G by 15th August next year and the announcement will be made by the Prime Minister himself. The announcement of the commercial availability is said to come on the occasion of India’s 75th anniversary of Independence.
“The 5G network would start around August next year and the PM may launch it officially on August 15. The major surprise of the launch will be that you will find a lot of Indian technology – be it in hardware or software – in it. As you are aware, India is very strong in software, so many technologies will be dependent on our local software companies. They will be the backbone,” The Hindu Business Line quoted a senior government official.
Here’s Why Its Important
It is worthy to point out that India has been behind compared to other nations on the rollout of 5G networks due to pertaining reasons. India will be using homegrown developed technology both on the hardware and software front as the country avoided being dependent on Chinese 5G technology. India particularly excluded Huawei and ZTE from 5G trials for a number of reasons including national security concerns. Both companies were also deemed a national security threat by the United States claiming the two companies have backdoor access to data from mobile networks running on their hardware globally.
Due to the aforementioned reasons, Indian companies got the chance to develop their own technology in collaboration with key players such as Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung and Qualcomm. 5G is the next frontier of technology advancement as it will not only enable high data speeds for smartphones but also power next-generation of connected devices such as sensors that can aid in disaster management, autonomous vehicles and Artificial Intelligence. 5G will also benefit other industries such as healthcare, farming, edu-tech and logistics.
It seems like the connected future powered by 5G networks will empower Indian companies, smart cities and even national security. What’s more impressive is that the next generation of connectivity will run on hardware and software developed locally rather than being dependent on China or any other country for that matter.
